Fellow community members,
It has come to our attention that standing idly by while leak sites continue their blackmail, extortion and victimization of our members, is no longer something we can afford.
As a community of hard working content creators, we recognize the importance of trust, and the honoring of each others rights to our work, ownership, and distribution. We understand how damaging it can be to each other's businesses, livelihood, and motivation to continue producing and delivering content, when our hours, days, and sometimes months of effort is snatched from our hands at the soonest possible opportunity, and copies sold by crooks looking to make a quick buck.
Leak sites are the worst example of this, and this is how they exist:
Every time you view their ads, you help them stay up.
Every time you purchase a rank on their sites, you help them stay up.
Every time you leak a copy of a product, and it falls in their hands, you help them stay up.
Every time you pay them not to leak your products, you help them stay up.
Moreover, you encourage them to continue doing the exact same thing to your peers and fellow creators, because it has proven profitable with you.
BuiltByBit and our community is in the position where we have the influence necessary to make a difference.
We can make running these leak sites less profitable for the thugs behind them.
We can make leaks of unowned content more legally troublesome to maintain.
We can discourage more sites from popping up in chase of easy, unearned profit, and as consequence, we can denormalize the theft and leaking of our community’s products.
Together, we can reduce the number of our fellow peers who are threatened, blackmailed, and extorted for their money and their work.
Prior to today, BuiltByBit has suspended those found to have leaked content they don’t own, and we have permanently banned those found to be uploading unowned content to leak sites.
However, this is not enough to fight the financial support and sustainability of these sites.
Starting today, we will be expecting more from our community members who have been paying these sites their desired ransom, and thus encourage them to continue their extortion of others.
It’s easy to believe that paying the ransom is a solution to getting control of one's product back, especially when everyone else is doing it, but this is incorrect. It may be taken down today, but to believe that there’s anything preventing them from putting it back up tomorrow, is to fool one’s self.
Thugs act on what’s most profitable to them. They will not hesitate to one-sidedly adjust the terms of their “protection", without your consent, if suitable.
The only control obtained by paying off thugs, is obtained by the thugs themselves. To further fund their activities, to demand more from you later, and to threaten and extort your peers who are trying to work and sell honestly alongside you.
Not every seller can afford to put new shoes on the feet of criminals and keep them happy.
BuiltByBit has the responsibility to think of every member of our community when deciding on our policies, and it is with that in mind that we will no longer tolerate the support and funding of leak sites, and will be taking direct action against the practice of paying them off.
As such, the following enforcement is now in effect:
We also encourage everyone who is able to, fight for your rights. Take legal action wherever necessary, and know that BuiltByBit will support you in every way that is within our power and authority.
A wiki with information and resources on how to get your content removed and actively fight to take down these leak sites can be found here: https://builtbybit.com/wiki/copyright-violations/
Moreover, if you ever need to visit these sites for good and necessary reasons, use ad-block filters to remove the overlays/pop-ups which attempt to force you to disable ad-block and generate ad-sense revenue for them. You can use the inspect-element tool to discover the classes being used to prevent navigation.
These things are merely encouraged and not enforced, however, we nonetheless ask for your assistance in fighting with us for the protection of everyone’s property rights.
Thank you so much for your time.
Let us look forward to a more honest and respectable future together, forged through our combined efforts.
- Your BuiltByBit staff team
It has come to our attention that standing idly by while leak sites continue their blackmail, extortion and victimization of our members, is no longer something we can afford.
As a community of hard working content creators, we recognize the importance of trust, and the honoring of each others rights to our work, ownership, and distribution. We understand how damaging it can be to each other's businesses, livelihood, and motivation to continue producing and delivering content, when our hours, days, and sometimes months of effort is snatched from our hands at the soonest possible opportunity, and copies sold by crooks looking to make a quick buck.
Leak sites are the worst example of this, and this is how they exist:
- Distributing unlimited copies of other people’s work to generate traffic
- Generating ad revenue from the traffic being directed towards the leaks
- Charging exclusive bulk access to other people’s exceptionally popular work
- Offering bulk access to other people’s work for those that assist in the leaking
- Extorting content creators into paying them not to leak the content on their site
Every time you view their ads, you help them stay up.
Every time you purchase a rank on their sites, you help them stay up.
Every time you leak a copy of a product, and it falls in their hands, you help them stay up.
Every time you pay them not to leak your products, you help them stay up.
Moreover, you encourage them to continue doing the exact same thing to your peers and fellow creators, because it has proven profitable with you.
BuiltByBit and our community is in the position where we have the influence necessary to make a difference.
We can make running these leak sites less profitable for the thugs behind them.
We can make leaks of unowned content more legally troublesome to maintain.
We can discourage more sites from popping up in chase of easy, unearned profit, and as consequence, we can denormalize the theft and leaking of our community’s products.
Together, we can reduce the number of our fellow peers who are threatened, blackmailed, and extorted for their money and their work.
Prior to today, BuiltByBit has suspended those found to have leaked content they don’t own, and we have permanently banned those found to be uploading unowned content to leak sites.
However, this is not enough to fight the financial support and sustainability of these sites.
Starting today, we will be expecting more from our community members who have been paying these sites their desired ransom, and thus encourage them to continue their extortion of others.
It’s easy to believe that paying the ransom is a solution to getting control of one's product back, especially when everyone else is doing it, but this is incorrect. It may be taken down today, but to believe that there’s anything preventing them from putting it back up tomorrow, is to fool one’s self.
Thugs act on what’s most profitable to them. They will not hesitate to one-sidedly adjust the terms of their “protection", without your consent, if suitable.
The only control obtained by paying off thugs, is obtained by the thugs themselves. To further fund their activities, to demand more from you later, and to threaten and extort your peers who are trying to work and sell honestly alongside you.
Not every seller can afford to put new shoes on the feet of criminals and keep them happy.
BuiltByBit has the responsibility to think of every member of our community when deciding on our policies, and it is with that in mind that we will no longer tolerate the support and funding of leak sites, and will be taking direct action against the practice of paying them off.
As such, the following enforcement is now in effect:
- Users found to be funding leak sites by paying them off will have their accounts suspended.
- Users found to be requesting leaks from these leak sites will be suspended.
- Users found to be paying leak sites for exclusive access or perks will be suspended.
- Users who refuse to end their funding/requests will be permanently banned.
- Users found to be a member of any leak site staff team, or otherwise providing aid/services to them will be permanently banned.
We also encourage everyone who is able to, fight for your rights. Take legal action wherever necessary, and know that BuiltByBit will support you in every way that is within our power and authority.
A wiki with information and resources on how to get your content removed and actively fight to take down these leak sites can be found here: https://builtbybit.com/wiki/copyright-violations/
Moreover, if you ever need to visit these sites for good and necessary reasons, use ad-block filters to remove the overlays/pop-ups which attempt to force you to disable ad-block and generate ad-sense revenue for them. You can use the inspect-element tool to discover the classes being used to prevent navigation.
These things are merely encouraged and not enforced, however, we nonetheless ask for your assistance in fighting with us for the protection of everyone’s property rights.
Thank you so much for your time.
Let us look forward to a more honest and respectable future together, forged through our combined efforts.
- Your BuiltByBit staff team
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